


The Other Side

by keraunoscopia



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, M/M, Mutual Pining, Self-Indulgent, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 05:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13140120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keraunoscopia/pseuds/keraunoscopia
Summary: The attendant smiled softly and nodded, clicking away at her computer, and she pulled a keycard out of her drawer, sliding it across the counter to Rafael, “you’re room 1110, on the eleventh floor, Sir.”Rafael furrowed his brow, “there was supposed to be two rooms."





	The Other Side

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Astronaut_Milky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astronaut_Milky/gifts).



> Because there can never be enough bed sharing fics. Merry Christmas!!!

“Tell me again why I agreed to travel with you?” Rafael practically growled out as he stood just past the security line at LaGuardia, watching the lanky detective struggle to pull on his shoes while balancing his duffle slung over his shoulder. 

“Because flying alone sucks, and we were going to the same place anyway,” Sonny looked up with a bright grin, still hopping on one foot as he tried to tie the laces of his shoes together. 

“Don’t you know, you’re supposed to wear slip on shoes to airports, because, as a detective you should know, they always make you take off your shoes,” Rafael glanced back down at his watch. They were heading to the American Constitution Society Convention held annually in DC, the promise of Ruth Bader Ginsberg as a keynote speaker had been particularly persuasive to both the practicing and non-practicing attorneys. 

Somehow, Rafael had been coaxed into agreeing to travel together, even though Sonny was terribly chatty at best, and annoying at worst, and apparently, incapable of being anywhere early. The ADA had arrived out front of Sonny’s apartment building in an Uber four hours before their flight was set to leave. They had to brave Manhattan traffic at rush hour, and work their way through check in and security. Rafael absolutely did not want to be running for the gate. Sonny didn’t seem to have the same concerns, and had appeared on the side walk exactly half an hour after Rafael had texted him to say they had arrived. 

“Relax, counselor, we’ve still got plenty of time, we’re just gonna be sitting at the gate waiting for an hour before they start to board anyway,” Sonny shrugged, finally straightening, and grabbing his messenger bag off the floor. “Okay, I’m ready.” 

Despite all of his anxiety and stress, exacerbated by the detective, slow as molasses, Rafael was first in line to board, Sonny at his heels, and they settled into their business class seats with a sigh of relief. It was a short flight, from New York to DC, and Rafael had to admit it was a pleasantly quiet trip. He had made it through ten chapters of a book he’d been trying to read for a few months, and Sonny had engrossed himself in the latest Fordham Law Review publication, flipping through the pages, adding quick notes and thoughts in the margins. 

Rafael had caught himself watching the detective a few times, the concentrated look on his face, the thought he seemed to be considering the articles with, the fact that this was the first real break they’d had in months, and he chose to read something academic and intellectual- Rafael knew the man was dedicated and intelligent, but it wasn’t usually laid out in front of him so clearly. 

When they got off the plane, Sonny had made a beeline for the rental counter, and Rafael scrolled through his messages quickly, trying to catch up on the updates from Carmen, the texts bordering on harassment from Rita asking when he was getting into town, the questions from Olivia. 

“Ready to head to the hotel?” Sonny asked, holding up the keychain to demonstrate his success. It was already almost ten, the convention didn’t start until the following morning. Rafael nodded, there was a hotel bar, and he figured it was as good a place as any to go over his notes for the presentation on prosecuting “non-traditional” sex crimes at the convention. 

Rafael relaxed again as he settled into the front seat of the car. After his earlier concerns about Sonny as a traveling companion, he had resigned himself to the fact that he really wasn’t that bad. Not nearly as chatty as he was around the squad, instead he seemed more interested in picking Rafael’s brain, outside the context of cases they really hadn’t had much opportunity to discuss the nuances of legal theory, and Sonny seemed genuinely curious about Rafael’s take. 

The drive to the hotel was shorter than Rafael anticipated, and they both collected their luggage before heading inside. It was standard fare for Rafael, a fairly decent four star hotel, not the pinnacle of luxury, but Sonny was all wide eyed awe. ACS had sponsored Rafael’s travel and accommodations, and he had been allowed a guest. He had considered offering to Rita- but then had considered her partnership in her firm, and he figured she wasn’t in need of a free ride. Instead he took pity on Sonny, and the meager public servant salary and had offered to extend the ticket and hotel room to him. 

“Hello,” Rafael greeted the front desk attendant with his charming smile, “reservation for Barba.” 

The attendant smiled softly and nodded, clicking away at her computer, and she pulled a keycard out of her drawer, sliding it across the counter to Rafael, “you’re room 1110, on the eleventh floor, Sir.” 

Rafael furrowed his brow, “there was supposed to be two rooms,” he cast a glance over at the detective, who had plopped himself down in a lobby chair, their luggage at his feet and pulled out his law journal again. 

“Hm,” the attendant turned back to her computer, typing away again. After a few moments, Rafael’s brows narrowed further. Silence was never a good sign, “I’m so sorry sir, I see here in the call notes that you requested two rooms, but it looks like the second was never entered into the computer…” she trailed off and Rafael’s face pulled into a scowl. 

“Let me guess, everything else is booked for the night…” the ADA grimaced. 

“Yes… the room you’re booked in is rather large though, Sir, and there’s a couch…” she offered sheepishly. “I’d suggest looking into another hotel honestly, but with the convention and the fact that Congress is in session right now…” she trailed off, “you’d be lucky to get two rooms at the Motel 8.” 

“Alright, that’s fine I suppose,” Rafael sighed, “could I at least get a second room key?” She nodded and slid it over the counter. 

“Bad news,” Rafael winced again as he hovered over Sonny, still buried in the law journal. The detective glanced up, startled, apparently hadn’t noticed Rafael’s approach. 

“What’s up?” 

“The hotel messed up the reservations, only one room, there’s a couch though apparently,” Rafael’s face pulled into clear disdain, though Sonny knew it wasn’t directed at him. 

“Oh, no worries,” Sonny shrugged, “i’ll take the couch, its only a couple nights.” He stuffed the law journal into his messenger bag and stood up, slinging it over his shoulder. “Shall we?” 

Rafael should have known that Sonny wouldn’t be bothered. He was an awfully chipper, positive person, always went with the flow, couldn’t seem to let anything discourage him. It was irritating. 

They both dropped their luggage off in the room, and Rafael grimaced again at the sight. It was a large room, beautiful and sprawling, but the couch looked terribly uncomfortable, sort of a Victorian style, but Sonny didn’t seem bothered at all. “What were your plans for the night?” Sonny asked, pulling his laptop out of the messenger bag. 

“I have to go over some notes for my presentation, I’m going to head down to the hotel bar, if you’d like to join?” It seemed rude to ditch the detective as soon as they arrived, especially after kicking him to the couch. 

“Sure I’ve got some work to catch up on,” Sonny just smiled brightly. 

Rafael was surprised at how easy the conversation was with Sonny, they settled into adjacent seats at the bar, both sprawling their notes and files across the cherry bar top, and any other bartender might have been miffed, but she seemed particularly smitten with the blond and bright eyed detective, and had been heavy handed and generous with her pours of Rafael’s favorite scotch. They vacillated between working silently side by side, and chatting easily between sips of their drinks. 

“Geeze, Barba, its nearly two AM,” Sonny remarked after a lull in the conversation, looking at that god awful Apple watch. 

“Is it really?” Rafael squinted in the low light to check his own watch, 1:47. “We should probably head back upstairs then, the convention starts at nine tomorrow.” 

“Today,” Sonny corrected with a laugh. 

Rafael just rolled his eyes, and collected his notes and papers back together. He swayed slightly when he stood up, and he wondered for a moment if maybe he’d had a little too much to drink. They’d both ordered a few, but he hadn’t really been paying attention to how much he had been drinking, not drunk, certainly, but pleasantly lightheaded. 

“I have to say,” Rafael noted as the elevator doors closed behind them, “that your company hasn’t been as terrible as I anticipated.” He let his shoulder rest against the wood paneled wall of the elevator to steady himself as the lift started moving. 

“Counselor, are you drunk,” Sonny teased lightly, “surely the infamous Rafael Barba isn’t actually complimenting me.” 

Rafael rolled his eyes again, “we’ve spent the last how ever many hours together, we’re staying in the same hotel room, I think you can probably get away with calling me Rafael this weekend,” he offered reluctantly. 

“Only if you call me Sonny.” 

Rafael glanced up at the detective, all bright eyes and dimpled smiles, and his stomach churned in a way that was decidedly not because of his scotch intake. “Sonny,” he tried the syllables out on his tongue. “You know your nickname is incredibly juvenile, right?” 

But Sonny just shrugged, steadfastly refusing to be bothered by Rafael’s teasing, “maybe so, but its always felt more like my own than Dominick, that’s my dad.” 

The elevator doors opened before Rafael could figure out what to say to that, and they walked side by side to their hotel room. Sonny dropped his bag just inside the door and headed over to the couch, unbuttoning his shirt with each step. Rafael tore his eyes away, and set his briefcase on the luggage rack before turning to his suit case, pulling out his toiletry bag, a pair of cotton pajama pants, and a clean under shirt. 

He swallowed hard as he closed the bathroom door behind him. He had definitely had too much to drink, it was the only explanation for why he had wanted to let his gaze linger on Sonny’s nimble fingers parting the buttons of his shirt, exposing the soft but toned planes of his chest… 

Rafael shook his head, changed quickly, and brushed his teeth, trying to get the stale taste of scotch off his tongue. When he finally emerged from the bathroom, Sonny had stripped down to a white tee shirt and boxers, and had pulled the spare blanket and pillow out of the little closet. His stomach churned uncomfortably as he watched Sonny unfold the blanket. 

“Bathroom’s free,” Rafael offered in what he hoped was a casual tone, and he turned back to the bed, king sized, a plush silk covered duvet. Sonny nodded with that same bright smile, and let himself into the bathroom. 

When he emerged a few minutes later, Rafael had settled onto the edge of the bed, still staring at the couch, if you could really even call it that, and it was definitely the scotch talking when he spoke slowly, “the couch looks awful, there’s no way you’re going to get a good sleep there. You can share the bed, if that doesn’t make you uncomfortable…” 

Sonny spun on his heel, wide eyed with apparent surprise, “really?” He tried to mellow his tone “I mean, if you really don’t mind, I’m not exactly as young as I used to be,” he laughed lightly. 

Rafael wanted to roll his eyes at that, he had ten years at least on the detective, but he refrained. “Sure, I don’t mind, its a king, just keep those inhumanly long legs on your own side,” he quipped. 

Sonny let out a loud laugh, his face creasing in so many familiar ways and Rafael could feel his throat go dry. It was probably a terrible idea, certainly wouldn’t alleviate those thoughts that had been blossoming in his mind since earlier that day. 

But it was too late to take it back, and he settled under the covers as Sonny approached gingerly, sliding into the bed. The bed dipped under the weight of the detective and Rafael reached up to turn off the light, only the stippling of city lights casting a dull glow about the room. 

Sonny shifted beside him, nestling further into the pillows, and Rafael slowly turned to face him, expecting to be met with the detective’s back, the swath of silver wheat hair pressed against the black silk of the pillowcase, but instead he saw blue. 

Icy grey blue staring back at him, and Rafael’s breath hitched. He could smell the soft clean scent of soap and cologne on his skin, could almost taste cinnamon on Sonny’s breath with each steady exhale, and his studied the detective’s face, almost expressionless, the usual creases and dimples only a barest hint on his skin. 

He was close, so close, barely a fraction between them. Rafael sucked in an unsteady breath, it wouldn’t take much, he could reach out, close the chasm between them with the barest hint of movement. But he couldn’t, and instead, just rolled back over, hand fisting in the soft silk of the pillow case. 

“Good night, Rafael,” Sonny murmured quietly, and they both drifted off to sleep. 

Rafael rarely woke up to his alarm, it was more of insurance than anything, because drunk, sober, exhausted or sick, he had an impeccable internal clock. The first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes was the sunlight filtering through the windows with a muted flaxen glow. The second was the feeling of hot breath against his neck, an arm curled almost possessively around his waist, the entire length of the detective pressed against his back. 

The tension of unfamiliarity faded into gentle comfort as he relaxed in Sonny’s grasp. It didn’t mean anything, he reminded himself, the detective was an affectionate person, had sought him out in his sleep unconsciously, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the contact, couldn’t let it linger just a little longer. 

He blinked a few times to clear the cloud of sleep from his eyes, and he lifted his hand to check his wrist for the time. Rafael groaned softly, it was later than he had anticipated, and if they both wanted to shower before making it to the convention, he had to get up now. 

Rafael shifted, trying to pull away from Sonny’s grasp, but his arm just tightened around the ADA’s waist. The flex of his forearm, bicep, Sonny was stronger than Rafael had expected, underestimated his lanky frame, so instead of trying harder to pull away, he shifted again, rolling over to face the detective, to try and wake him up. 

But when his sleepy gaze came to rest on Sonny’s face, cloudy, heavy lidded blue eyes were staring back at him. Rafael couldn’t help himself, let out a soft gasp, and he could feel Sonny’s strong hand grasp a little tighter at his back, instead of pulling away. 

“Sonny,” Rafael exhaled softly. Their faces were impossibly close, mere millimeters apart, and he really wasn’t sure who it was who closed the distance, met in a searing kiss.


End file.
